The Internet was initially developed to facilitate the electronic sharing of information between academic institutions and government organizations. The information available was limited and access to it was restricted to those companies and institutions that were directly connected to the network. While the information was available electronically, it was not easy to search and retrieve relevant documents. Eventually, programmers developed search engines to automate much of the search process. The search engine permits a user to input certain search criteria and obtain the appropriate documents without knowing where the documents are located.
One such example of a search engine is disclosed in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows a GUI implemented search results screen 10 containing various information including a search field 20 wherein a user enters a search term 30. Once search term 30 is entered, the user depresses a search button 40 to begin the search. When the search is complete, the search engine returns a plurality of search results 50 corresponding to a plurality of search categories 60 that are generally hot links to the specific search category listed (e.g., News, Web, etc.). The user is free to select any one of the search categories 60 to display corresponding search results 50. The total number of hits (results) 70 is also displayed.
Currently, search engines textually display a confirmation of search criteria 38 for each of the search categories 60. This confirmation of search criteria 38 textually indicates what search term was used for each search category 60. Unfortunately, given the large amount of textual data present on a screen, i.e. both content and advertising, users may not associate the search criteria recitation 38 with the appropriate search category 60. In addition, the search criteria 38 separates the plurality of search results 50 from the search category 60.
Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown an enlargement of section “A” of FIG. 1. The search categories 60 are separated into a plurality of tabs 80 which resemble the index tabs on a standard paper file folder, wherein one of the tabs 80 is a selected tab 90. Selected tab 90 is highlighted to reflect that search results 50 correspond to the search category 60 selected by the user, (e.g., in the example shown, the WorldWideWeb, or the “Web”). However, the search criteria 38 separate the plurality of search results 50 from the search category 60.
Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown a continuation of search result screen 10 of FIG. 1 containing the plurality of search results 50. In order to facilitate searching by the user, search field 20 and search button 40 are duplicated at both the top and bottom of search result screen 10. In addition, a plurality of additional results page links 95 are displayed to retrieve additional search results 50. There are no search categories 60 present at the end of page 10. Similarly, there is no association between the search term 30 contained in the search field 20 and the search category 60 selected by the user.
Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown search results screen 10 of FIG. 1 corresponding to selected tab 90. In this instance, selected tab 90 refers to the search category “directory” and the corresponding search results 50.
Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, there is shown an alternate search results screen 15 and a continuation of screen 15 of FIG. 5, respectively. Screen 15 contains search field 20, search term 30, search button 40, and search results 50 with various search categories 60. In addition, selected tab 90 is highlighted to indicate that a particular search category 60 is selected. FIG. 6 is a continuation of screen 15 of FIG. 5 and depicts the remainder of search results 50. In addition, screen 15 contains additional results page links 95 located on the bottom of screen 15. There are no search categories 60 present at the end of page 15. Similarly, there is no visual association between the search term 30 contained in the search field 20 and the search category 60. Likewise, the search field separates the search categories 60 from the search results 50.
While the current search engines facilitate searching the vast amount of information present on the internet, users tend to be overwhelmed with the sheer volume of textual information contained on the search results screen. Accordingly, users tend to disregard most of the textual information and instead focus their attention on visual information and non-textual icons. While the current search engines provide a textual reference to the search criteria entered by the user for each of the category of results or change the color of the selected tab, such information tends to be overlooked by the user. In addition, there is no visual association between the search term 30 contained in the search field 20 and the search category 60 located at the beginning or at the end of each results screen 10 and 15. Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a system and method for visually and reliably associating a search region having a search term with a category of result.